Regional budget 10/26/07

GateHouse News Service Regional Budget (10/26/07)
Here are the top Illinois stories coming today from GateHouse News Service. Stories are available at http://ghns.ghnewsroom.com
*Please check this Web site in the evening for changes to story lineup, including breaking news.
Contacts:
Regional Editor Jonie Larson, (217) 816-3343, jlarson@gatehousemedia.com
National Editor Jean Hodges, (630) 348-3350, jhodges@gatehousemedia.com

News

FIRESTORM GRANDMA: Will try to get early impressions from fire ground zero in San Diego from Betty Powers, the 75-year-old Peoria woman and Red Cross volunteer who flew there Wednesday to help manage one of the many evacuee shelters. HILYARD/PEORIA/ILLINOIS and Illinois News and GHNS-News

NFL IN COURT. Former NFL lineman Bill Maas will appear in Tazewell County Circuit Court on gun and drug charges. Attempting to get a pic of him entering or leaving the courthouse. SAMPIER/PEORIA/Illinois News and Illinois Sports

CANAL BOAT. (w/renderings) LaSalle celebrating the launch of construction of the that long-sought-after, $1 million canal board. The proposed 76-foot long canal boat will offer tours along the canal from LaSalle east to Split Rock. Details also about a welcome center will be discussed. WEEKS/PEORIA/lllinois News

HOPE INSTITUTE: To open K-5 public school in Chicago that will focus on kids with autism. Fairly major broadening of efforts. SPRINGFIELD/Illinois and Illinois News/this evening.

BABY SCALDER: Accused in scalding of child to be in court today. ANTONACCI/SPRINGFIELD/Illinois News

MORTAR SHELLS: We don't see them, think about them or worry about them until someone finds one and brings it to the Public Safety Building. Then, there's mayhem. They're mortar shells from Atwood Park, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will sweep between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They're there because the park was the Camp Grant rifle range during both World Wars. In the meantime, Park District is warning residents with signs that they should not try to dig up these shells or touch them if they find them. ROCKFORD/Illinois/this evening

PEACHES REUNION: Girls of Summer Welcoming Event at 6 p.m. tonight, Midway Village. A reunion of former Rockford Peaches women baseball players. The reunions are annual, but this is the first time the event is being held in Rockford. ROCKFORD/late this evening/Illinois and Illinois Sports, GHNS-Lifestyle, Midwest and News.

Business

KMART CHANGES:: Kmart is using its two Rockford stores as its first publicly-announced testing ground for becoming more of a customer-needs-driven business. It will test changes such as extensive store remodeling, customer service training and in-store Web access, inviting customer input into what works and what doesn't. This is a step in implementing its chairman's profitability strategy in a report to shareholders: "We need to listen to our customers, to learn what they want to buy, how and where they want to buy it, and the different ways they perfer to be served." ROCKFORD/Illinois News

CHRYSLER VOTE: Belvidere was shaping up to be the final showdown in the battle over the UAW-Chrysler tentative contract. The last local to vote, it may just be symbolic because a company official said they believe they already have enough "yes" votes for ratification. ROCKFORD/Illinois and Illinois News

Sports

BEARS: Story and notes from Bears camp. ROCKFORD/Illinois Sports and Bears.

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Opinions

GLOBAL PROBLEM: Some disturbing news on the global warming front in the past couple of days. On Tuesday, a new study was released in which some top scientists predict a massive extinction of species due to global warming within 100 years. EDITORIAL/SPRINGFIELD/Illinois Opinions and GHNS-Opinions/posted.

BRITT: Toon commenting on the "trainloads" headed to Chicago to bail out the CTA. CHRIS BRITT/SPRINGFIELD/Illinois Opinions/posted

BRITT: Toon depicting the Bush adminstration's hypocracy in quickly sending federal help to rich areas of California affected by wildfires while New Orleans is still feeling the effects of Hurricane Katrina. CHRIS BRITT/SPRINGFIELD/Illinois Opinions and GHNS-Opinions-Cartoons/posted

WORLD WAR III: Turkey is threatening military action. Russia is buddying up with Iran. And the leader of the free world has invoked images of World War III if all involved don't behave. If this is what President Bush meant by “stability” in the Middle East when he was beating the bushes for a preemptive strike in Iraq, well, can we retroactively take a pass?EDITORIAL/PEORIA/Illinois Opinions and GHNS-Opinions

Coming tomorrow

CHICAGO FEATURE: RESURRECTION MARY. CHICAGO – The story usually goes something like this: A motorist traveling on a dark, desolate road picks up a mysterious woman hitchhiker who -- wouldn't you know it -- turns out to be a ghost. Folklorists say its a common urban legend, but Chicago has its own variation and a name for the roaming spirit: Resurrection Mary. RAMSEY/CHICAGO BUREAU; ART ASSIGNED. W/ sidebar on other Chicago ghost stories.

5 THINGS TO KNOW IN CHICAGO. RAMSEY

CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: 5 quick takes on the week at the statehouse. CAPITOL BUREAUS

STATEHOUSE REPORT: Update on how the much-touted "Preschool for All" program is progressing. COLINDRES/CAPITOL BUREAU/posting Friday/Illinois, Illinois News

ANNIVERSARY OF MURDER: THE SHELTONS, 60 YEARS LATER. (w/pics) This week marked the anniversary of the unraveling of the infamous Shelton Gang, when brother and family leader Carl Shelton was shot to death in an ambush near his farm in southern Illinois, Oct. 23, 1947. His death remains unsolved. Now, 60 years later, what is the legacy of this bloody and once-notorious family? (30-40 inches) RADOSEVICH/PEORIA